“Synchronic”: Another sci-fi mind twister too many people missed out on
It’s a little late for a new review on this film. It came out in 2019 but it didn’t get a lot of attention. Now it’s coming to Netflix, on April 16 Synchronic will be available to stream so I decided it’s the perfect time to get the word out. Starring Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan (who, not gonna lie, in the wake of the “Stackie” friendship, feels like a Walmart stand-in version of Sebastian Stan. It doesn’t help that he has almost nothing to do but act depressingly angsty the whole time), and was directed by the team behind the films The Endless, and Spring, Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson.
It’s got that same dreamlike, what the heck is happening, quality to it, only unlike its predecessor’s, something about Synchronic feels effortless. As if Moorhead and Benson made it quickly from a half-baked idea that was leftover from all their other projects, though it’s hypnotic enough to keep your interest and imprint on your memory.
Synchronic is a mix of big and small. It takes a simple story and then throws it into a mind-twisting concept that focuses primarily on time and how the past, present, and future are simply divided by perception. In a way, it reminds me of Pokemon Go only because, like that annoyingly popular game, Synchronic highlights the things we cannot see. In Pokemon Go, the player needed the use of an app to look for Pokemon and would only be able to see them if they looked through their phone’s screen. During the hype of this game, I often imagined that a Pokemon was standing right beside me but I was unable to see it. I would look behind me and start talking to a Charizard I imagined was standing there.
Although not nearly as silly, Synchronic is oddly similar.
Steve (Mackie) and Dennis (Dornan) are lifelong best friends who work together as late-night paramedics. They each have their own personal troubles which are that they crave the other’s social life. Dennis has a wife, children, and lives in domesticity while Steve is a detached ladies’ man, but both feel hollow inside, and trust me, it shows. But that’s just the boring backdrop used for plot motivation, the real story involves the series of strange deaths they’ve been encountering while on the job. Each death appears to be drug-related but no one has any real explanation for how they happen. Their only clue is a tiny packet labeled Synchronic at each crime scene.
(Spoilers ahead)
As it turns out, Synchronic is a “designer” drug created especially for people to experience time travel. Its purpose is to allow the user to leave their own time for a total of seven minutes. Taking the drug will transport them to a new moment in time, usually the past, and even allow them to interact with whatever is there. However, like everything, there is a catch. For one, the past is rarely kind and there is no way to control where you go when you take the drug. It’s like walking into Jigsaw’s playhouse with a blindfold. You might walk into a pit of chainsaws or you might just walk into a door and live to see another few minutes.
Another catch is the way the drug works. The drug affects the pineal gland but when taken by children, whose pineal glands have yet to fully develop, there is a chance that they might not come back from their trip, which is exactly what happens to Dennis’s daughter Brianna (Ally Ioannides). After realizing he has cancer and has yet to fully live a life worth living for, Steve decides he’ll do whatever it takes to save his best friend’s daughter.
Big and small, some half-baked with a bit of genius, it’s a perfectly congenital film with just enough mystery to keep your eyes on the screen and just enough horror to make you wish Moorhead and Benson would go more Lovecraftian every once and a while. The human relationships and the emotional impact they attempt to make are its weak points only because Mackie and Dornan aren’t very believable as BFFs, but it does its best and is effective to a certain degree. Mackie holds the entire thing on his shoulders, everyone else is just white noise behind him.
The true genius of Synchronic is the drug itself and its take on time travel. Everyone has a vice they use to escape reality and in the case of Synchronic, all the characters want to escape themselves. The drug presents them with this exact option. It’s a representative of all drugs in their rawest, most philosophical form.
Synchronic has one of the best opening scenes of the films released in 2019, a masterpiece of arthouse sci-fi horror. Very ominous and grotesque, beautiful and smartly constructed, like a violin made from human bones playing a tune in a haunted house once owned by a blood-drinking demon cult. If anything elevated my opinion on this film, it was that opening sequence.
(4 / 5)
All photos are property of XYZ Films and Patriot Pictures
Episode two of Wheel of Time felt like the beginning of a long journey. Stories are unfolding, lives are changing, and blood is spilling.
Let’s discuss.
The story
We begin this episode in the past with Elayne’s mother, Queen Morgase. It turns out her rise to the throne was a bit, shall we say, cutthroat. So when she shows up at the White Tower, Siuan is concerned.
She might have reason to be, too.
Meanwhile, Rand, Egwene, Moiraine, Lan and Aviendha are in the Spine of The World. As they travel through some of the most breathtaking lands I have ever seen on a TV show, Egwene is plagued with nightmares. We think at first that’s just her trauma working itself through her system. But we soon find out that it might not be that straightforward.
Finally, Perrin returns home to heal after his hand is almost cut in half. But when he gets there he finds the town has been infested by Children of The Light. And they’re looking for him.
What worked
There was something heartwarming in this episode about political espionage and choking religious persecution. And that is Elayne’s relationship with her family.
I have consumed a lot of fantasy content with royal families. And I have never once heard a princess call her mother ‘Mum’. I’ve never seen royal siblings get along. And I have sure as hell never seen a princess have a good relationship with her step-parent.
This was refreshing. Even though Queen Morgase is kind of a horrible person she seems like a good mother. And that’s an unexpected delight.
Of course, this is just one storyline among many. And while this can sometimes be overwhelming, in this case it wasn’t.
I’ll be honest, some of these storylines are going to drag for me. I know this because I’ve read some of the Wheel of Time books and I have an idea that not all the characters exactly pique my interest.
No one likes all the characters. No one likes all the storylines. While I am here for the political espionage between Queen Morgase and Siuan, not everyone likes it. While others might be fascinated with Selene trying to win Rand back, I couldn’t care less.
Having multiple storylines keeps everyone’s attention better. So long as things don’t get out of hand. Things can easily get out of hand. But this seems to be managed well.
So far.
What didn’t work
As I mentioned above, I’m not thrilled with Rand’s story at this point. And while it’s fine to not like a storyline when there are this many to choose from, it’s not fantastic that the one I like the least is the one involving our two main characters. And anytime we were with the team at the Spine of The World, the only thing that brought me joy was Moirain’s hat. It reminded me of Stockard Channing’s hat in Practical Magic.
The problem is that Rand is Charlie Brown with controversial magical powers. He is boring, serious, and pessimistic.
And yes, I understand that he has a heavy emotional burden and he’s the Dragon Reborn and that’s quite taxing and all. But let’s be fair, there isn’t a single person in this show that doesn’t have a heavy burden. And most of them manage to be fun occasionally.
All that being said, this episode of Wheel of Time did exactly what it needed to do. It set up conflicts at each of the three locations. It established emotional ties between the characters and the events. And it established goals for everyone.
This was, in short, a solid episode. Not groundbreaking, not mind-blowing or life changing. It was simply good. It was entertaining and moved the plot forward.
Well done.
(3.5 / 5)
Wheel of Time is back for season three. There are mixed feelings regarding this. Last season, there were some serious pacing issues. And some serious sticking to the book’s storyline issues. But we’re two seasons in, and we don’t give up so easily. So let’s dive into episode one, To Race the Shadow.
By the way, I highly recommend watching this episode with the subtitles on. You’ll see why.
The story
We begin this episode with Liandrin facing a trial of sorts for her rampant betrayal. She does her best to gaslight her Aes Sedai sisters into thinking that Siuan Sanche is the real traitor.
When that doesn’t work, she reveals how many Black Aes Sedai have actually infiltrated the tower.
Spoiler, it’s a lot.
In the aftermath, our whole team gathers to drink and enjoy one night of relaxation before they head out to the Tear to form an army for Rand. All is going well until they’re attacked by myriad creatures and a sentient axe.
What worked
This episode was long. It had a run time of an hour and eleven minutes. And a lot of that run time was spent in heavy dialog scenes.
Fortunately, these were well-done scenes.
If you’re going to have a lot of talking scenes, there are good ways and bad ways to do it. Last season, we saw lots of examples of the bad way to do it. But this episode did it well. For one thing, other things were going on while conversations were taking place. The characters are drinking, playing games, walking through an interesting city. And the scenes themselves didn’t stretch out. They weren’t repetitive. We heard what the character had to say, then we moved on.
It was also nice that the point of these scenes wasn’t just info dumps. We had character development. We had romantic interactions. We had plot development and foreshadowing.
Overall, this episode felt like what it was. A moment of calm before a storm.
Taking a step back, I’d be remiss if I didn’t address the fight scene at the start of the episode. Because it was epic.
The magic looked amazing. The martial arts that went along with it looked fantastic. The costumes were beautiful. It was just incredibly fun to watch.
More than that, it was emotional. We lost some characters in that fight that were important. And it was clearly emotionally shattering for many of our characters, who found themselves betrayed by people they trusted.
So many of them.
It was a great way to open the season.
What didn’t work
Despite that, this episode wasn’t without its flaws.
First off, there were a lot of dialog scenes. And they were good scenes, as I’ve already discussed. But it was one after another after another. And when your episode is, again, an hour and eleven minutes, it’s maybe a little much to have so much chit-chat. Couldn’t some of these conversations, important as they were, have been moved to maybe another episode?
Finally, I want to talk about Egwene’s travel through the arches.
I feel like maybe there were some deleted scenes here. Because there must have been more to that visit than what we saw, right?
We could have seen Egwene battle Rand. That would have been badass and emotionally devastating. We could have seen her with a quiet life with Rand back home at the Two Rivers. We could have seen anything except for the quick clip of Rand in a bloody river, followed by Egwene being shoved back out in a bloody shift.
Bad job. But at least it wasn’t an extended scene of Moiraine collecting bathwater, and then taking a bath while looking sad. If we’d started this season with another scene like that, it might have broken my brain.
Amazon dropped the first three episodes at once. So we’ll be back soon to talk about episode two. See you then.
(4 / 5)
Early 2000s is a special era for the industry. It accepts the cheesiness and corniness of movie making, in turn producing some gems in their own right. Eight Legged Freaks starring David Arquette and young Scarlet Johanson is a horror comedy about giant spiders who overtake a small town. As crazy as that premise sounds, the movie surprisingly has a ton of heart and is super entertaining. Let’s review, shall we?
Plot
We start Eight Legged Freaks with a shot of toxic waste spilling into the water supply of Joshua, a spider farm owner. He is friends with Mike, one of our protagonists, who is a science geek and a spider enthusiast. Mike notices something quite right upon visiting Joshua, but no one takes him seriously. We are then introduced to the rest of the crew. Mike’s mother Samantha, the town sheriff, is too busy chasing Ashley, his sister, who is dating the town mayor’s son Bret (something Samantha does not approve of). We also have Chris, who returns to the town to save his father’s legacy in the town mines. He has opposition from Wade, Bret’s father, who wants to use the mines for his business ventures. Lots of drama going on that will only get juicier once the spiders get loose.
The creepy crawlies quickly dispose of Joshua and make their grand appearance after Ashley rejects Bret’s advances, abandoning him in the middle of a desert. A glorious chase sequence ensues as the spiders make their way towards the town, wreaking havoc on its residents. In a true horror fashion (which the movie acknowledges), it takes some convincing from Mike and then from Samantha for the town to take the threat seriously. The tongue-in-cheek style of narrative adds the comedy aspect to a movie that would otherwise burn out fairly quickly.
The remaining characters hide out in a shopping mall as it’s the only somewhat sturdy building in the area. This doesn’t last long as the spiders break in, forcing them to run through the mines. Their resources to fight the creepy crawlies off are limited as the methane gas doesn’t allow them to use firearms. Such conditions require resourceful thinking from Chris, who uses perfume to fend off the leader of the spider group and save himself during the climax of the movie.
Character dynamics are not forgotten once the action kicks in. We have Chris confessing his long-term feelings for Samantha which she knew all along, which provided some comedic relief. Bret also reunites with Ashley and apologises for being an asshole. Mike finally gets the appreciation he deserves as his knowledge saves the townsfolk more than once during the whole ordeal.
We end the movie with the town’s radio show person telling the story as an urban legend during his segment. This brings it into question – how much of it happened the way he said it did? We can only guess…
Overall thoughts
Eight Legged Freaks is a fun creature feature with some self-aware commentary on genre tropes that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The acting is good, the pacing fitting and the characters are likeable enough for you to want them to make it through. Definitely a must watch, if you don’t suffer from arachnophobia, that is.
(5 / 5)